Will it ever come back?
It’s been more than six months since Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) was banned by the Indian government for data privacy concerns. Since then, Krafton has been saying that it’s trying to bring the game back.
With nearly half a year passing since the game was banned, a lot of players have been losing hope about a potential return. There’s a bit of good news, though, as Krafton seemed hopeful of the game’s return in its 2022 4Q Earnings Results conference call.
Krafton is hopeful of BGMI returning to India
The previous was not the easiest for Krafton. While it reported strong growth in revenue and users on PC and console, the crucial mobile platform has faltered.
The revenue for 2022 has been down 11.6 year-over-year. Krafotn primarily blamed this on the global recession, the end of the pandemic, and a ban on BGMI. Its stock also fell more than five percent after poor quarterly earnings.
However, it reassured investors by stating that it was continuing to try to bring BGMI back to India. It also added that it expected to get more clarity on regional uncertainties and regulations in 2023.
“We’ve put in a lot of effort to bring about the unbanning of the sanctions on BGMI and once the ban is removed, we believe there will be additional and significant growth opportunities.”
It’s unclear what efforts are being put into bringing the game back. The Indian government had alleged data privacy reasons behind the banning of the game.
It’s unlikely that Krafton would continue to reassure investors if it wasn’t at least a little bit confident of the game’s return. No timeline on when this might happen was given, though.
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BGMI’s ban is different to other games
The Indian government has been on a banning spree for the past three years. It has banned more than 200 applications and games for alleged data privacy reasons.
However, BGMI’s ban is different to the rest of the games. This is because even though it has been removed from the application stores, the servers for the game are still live.
Players can easily access and enjoy the battle royale title. However, Krafton hasn’t released any new content updates into the game since the initial ban in July 2022.
Even if the game returns, it remains to be seen how it fares now. The game is definitely not as popular as it once was. On top of this, the game will face additional competition in the market soon with the upcoming releases of games like VALORANT Mobile and Warzone Mobile.
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